Donkey Kong Cabinet for my classroom

[eulerphi]

Last Spring Break, while surfing the web, I stumbled onto the forum.  Inspired by the numerous projects I decided to build a Donkey Kong cabinet for my classroom.  After attaining permission from my principal to have a cab in my classroom (hey STEM is all the rage and all I had to say was Linux, scatchbuilt, and raspberry Pi and he was sold) I lurked on the forum and put my plan together.  I took the the standard approach, Jakobud plans, raspberry Pi powered, Emulation Station front end, around 10 classic one button or no button game ROMs, old computer monitor, and an ipac controller.  I had no woodworking experience and without this forum I couldn't have completed the project.  I found all the answers to my questions in past posts, the pics sealed the deal and pointed the way. I used my neighbor's router, jigsaw, table saw, hand sander, and woodworking clamps and now owe him a cabinet that we will make together next summer (he'll pay for the stuff, I'll just help him build).  All told I spent $750.  It took two weeks of working on this a few hours each day.  The movie Pixels released over the summer and so all the kids in my classes (8th grade math) now think I'm a god.


The mess begins



I painted the inside of the sides first so I wouldn't have to mask the front panel after assembly.



I went overboard on painting inside outside top and bottom.




I used an oak control panel but MDF would have been a better choice.  The extra MDF in the background was a router (rookie) mistake do-over.



This part was fun.  The ipac made this super easy.





I mounted the Pi right on the monitor mount.




The two extra buttons are my coin mechanism and escape buttons.  The red connectors allow me to completely remove the control panel. The coin slot is also operational.  No, I don't make the kids pay for games.



I got bored at the end of the project and never tidied-up all the cables.




Finished pics









I didn't want to post any pics of kids, needless to say during passing periods and after school my room is packed.  It also allows me to help kids with math as they wait to play games, homework and Donkey Kong (or Ms. Pacman, etc.).




Thanks to all those before me that blazed the trail and made my project so easy.

[ChanceKJ]

  x 1,000,000!

You are quite possibly one of the coolest teachers i've ever seen.   Even cooler then our shop teacher who had a case of Smirnoff hidden under his desk and would take naps and use it as a footstool during CAD classes. (Sadly, I'm really not kidding)

[winnydapoo]

What chance said!    Bonus points for the Rc Helicopter too 

[kiel0909]

you're nicer than me, the SFII CE in my classroom requires quarters!  though i do teach high school.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Sweet!

[johnrt]

That's beyond awesome! 

[solar]

Ok kids if you can turn to page 14 and proceed to answer the questions in the work book, i've got some....papers to grade. Do Do Do, Do Do Do Do.

Totally belongs in that room though

[talkgeek]

Very nice build    - cool idea for classroom motivation 

[tigernut]

Great job, looks really nice!

Wish I had a teacher like you in school.